My minimalist arcade machine FINISHED!

[ronafios]

I have a room that is very minimal. I also have two Taito boxes in the shed that I've had set up at various times in different houses. Wifey not keen to have them set up in our modern minimal lounge room, leaving me with no option but to create a piece of furniture... I did this fun little project over the last couple of weeks.



I'm using a 15k 20" arcade monitor, iCade 60-in-1, and bits from Ultracabs on eBay. I used a gas-lift strut to make it all work. I picked up a NAD amp for $80 and a pair of Denon speakers for $88 on eBay and made my machine run double-duty as an iPod dock.

All up, looks much more 'lounge-roomy' than the giant purple and blue, scuffed Taito boxes... wasn't too hard to do and was lots of fun. I might replace the front speaker cover with a black one, might be too many colours introduced with the other fabric.

Hope this inspires others to consider repackaging arcade gear to suit their environment...

[GregD]

 Wow.  Very cool..and original.  Great quality of finish.

[vcoleiro1]

Great build and welcome fellow AussieArcade member.

[TopJimmyCooks]

To me its a modern homage to the console TV/stereo that was in every living room in the 50's-60's.  Very nice.

• Respect on the Barcelona's, in white, natch! and the eames lounger.  Midcentury FTW always
• Is the cam lock what holds the monitor lift down when closed?
• Great job on the white paint finish- was there polishing or wet sanding involved a la Ond?
• Is the power/on off tied into when the monitor is raised?
• are you satisfied with comfort during play with no control panel overhang?  I wonder how difficult it would be to have the CP slide out towards the player upon opening.

And last, where did you get those chrome legs?  Doug Mockett?

[emphatic]

It's very sexy overall, but the trackball is an eyesore to me, sorry. Great choice in monitor/hardware. How hard would changing the JAMMA board be?

[Donkbaca]

I love stuff like this!  Very awesome.  Reminds me of a freezer for some reason.... Nice take on a cocktail machine.

[BobA]

Very innovative design.   Looks like it fits in well to your minimalistic decor.   

[ronafios]

Thanks for all the nice comments, guys!  It was a super fun project, and seriously didn't take very long.


• Is the cam lock what holds the monitor lift down when closed?

Yes.  I didn't get my physics quite right.  Essentially, I have a long shaft gas lift tube that pushes up and holds the monitor in place.  What I SHOULD have done is use two gas lift tubes (one on either side) with a thicker MDF lid (to hold all the weight).  Then it would have assisted the lift like in a car hatchback.  As it stands right now, the gas strut pushes from below, so it needs to be held down - hence the cam locks.  One day I'll probably fix it.  It's not awful though, it's fine how it is. 


• Great job on the white paint finish- was there polishing or wet sanding involved a la Ond?

I went over the MDF edges with an epoxy resin to seal them before undercoating, which I recommend.  I sprayed the whole box with a shellac undercoat before hitting it with the high-fill undercoat.  That MDF is soooo thirsty!!!  Sealing is important. The hi-fill was sanded to 400 before final white paint.  Sprayed it with a relatively cheap compressor/gun combo, and then hit it with some 1200, 1500 and then machine polisher.  I didn't spend too much time on it because I was only looking for a low sheen, not a high gloss. The main thing I wanted was for it to be FLAT, without orange peel, and with no visible screw holes or seams.


• Is the power/on off tied into when the monitor is raised?

That's a nice idea - something to retro-fit.  I've put a double power switch at the bottom of the machine (along with IEC power input, test/service buttons) which you can easily switch when you sit down to use it.  The two switches control the iPod dock amp and the arcade.  I like the automatic idea though.  Wouldn't be too hard to engineer.


• are you satisfied with comfort during play with no control panel overhang?  I wonder how difficult it would be to have the CP slide out towards the player upon opening.

It's actually fine.  It is reminiscent of a cocktail cab in this sense, where there isn't usually anywhere for you to put your legs - but has the advantage of being a tad thinner than your typical cocktail - so you can kind of put your legs either side. 

And last, where did you get those chrome legs?  Doug Mockett?
[/quote]

They were cheapies I picked up from the local hardware store for the grand sum of $9.99 for 4 (Bunnings in Australia).  I was originally looking for some squarer brushed stainless style, but you work with what you find... for cheap!

[ronafios]

It's very sexy overall, but the trackball is an eyesore to me, sorry. Great choice in monitor/hardware. How hard would changing the JAMMA board be?

Yeah, I kinda agree on the trackball, although you kind of get over it pretty fast.  The main problem was that I built the unit out of 16mm MDF, which is thin when you start routing out mount points for trackballs.  It's perfectly strong enough overall, but the control panel could have been improved if I'd put a perspex layer, metal plate, etc in the design.  I had to put that giant metal plate on the top because it wouldn't have had enough strength any other way with my current design (gloss painted 16mm thick MDF).  Maybe I will retro-fit something nicer one day.  I'm jealous of the very cool control panels others have built. 

I used JAMMA wiring through the whole box.  The control panel is hinged at the front with two traditional arcade latches at the back.  When you lift it up you find the 60-in-1 vertically mounted, a nice little 12v amp, power supply, and the back of the coin-mech etc (and coin container).  Not too hard to change boards, but you wouldn't fit a full-sized arcade board in there the way it's currently designed.  It would have been easy enough to run the wiring from the back of the box and to have room for full sized boards, but I always saw this as a multi-cab.  Where it is at the moment I can easily access DIP switches etc.

If you remove one of the speakers in the side, you can access the bolt that holds the gas lift in place.  Then you can swing the monitor all the way up and over to access the inside of the box, so it wouldn't have been terrible to have mounted the board inside somewhere.

[emphatic]

My thoughts was more in the "why a trackball at all" department.

[opt2not]

My thoughts was more in the "why a trackball at all" department.

I was kinda thinking the same thing. Seems that Centipede is the only game you can play off that board with a trackball...perhaps Arkanoid too. But I would have left the trackball out, and gone an even more minimalist route...1 joy - 2 buttons, and smaller atari cone-style start buttons. And to go with the chrome/white theme, I would have nixed the black bat-top and installed a white balltop with chrome shaft.

Regardless of my stupid critiques, I really like this build and the idea of a hide-a-cabinet that's family friendly. 

[Unstupid]

The arcade is nice, but what's really making me drool is the Barcelona and Eames chairs!       Very Nice!

[ronafios]

My thoughts was more in the "why a trackball at all" department.

Ah yes.  As mentioned, the answer is Arkanoid and Super Breakout - two games my kids love.  And Centipede and Millipede.  I play a lot of Centipede.  I think those four games are the only ones that use a trackball on the 60-in-1.

I've ordered the white ball-top for the Mag-stick Plus - but annoyingly you can't seem to order it with a ball-top, and the company I bought it from didn't have any stock of the accessory.  I wanted the mag-stick plus so I could quickly switch from 4 way to 8 way, being a Pac-man fan etc.  About 10 or 15 games work with an 8-way.  Anyway, hopefully the ball-top will arrive soon.